contrast

a couple of shots of two pieces I have been playing around with today. I was thinking as I saw the two pieces sitting on my ironing board (thanks Andy and Lily for my flash-arse new ironing board cover :D) how different in fabric texture, colour and approach these two pieces were. They're such a contrast.

This little sundress, for example, is so light and summery both in the lightness of fabric and the images on the fabric; the pears and the pretty yellow and white. Team this with the sunny yellow ricrac and its just complete girliness.



By contrast, this pair of shorts are made from 100 per cent black hemp denim; there's a lovely rugged nubbliness to the fabric. I really like it. And the fabric I have used for the pockets, despite the tiki's being in bright colours just seems to work with the black hemp. It suggests a sort of rebellious boyish image to me. Something slightly more cooler than skulls I think ;)

been busy sewing...

shall pop up on ozebaby in next couple of days :D

being set to work

she's a bit of a bossy one this one.  As soon as I was back in my sewing room sewing this year Lily's been in there combing through my fabric stash and requesting that I make her dressses, tshirts, shorts, trousers, skirts... you name a garment and she's found the fabric for it.

so of course, being the doting mummy I am I relented. She chose this gorgeous fairy fabric, which she's been wanting to be made into a dress for ages. My mum gave it to me after one of her many visits to a quilt and craft show.  It began its life as a fat quarter and I found two other fat quarters in the stash in the gorgeous Japanese quilters cotton that I used for the back and hem trim.  

It's a little big at this stage, as I made it for her to grow into. i don't want gorgeous fabric like that used for a dress that will only fit for a season, this one will fit for many!!!

She wore it shopping in town and seriously we had about five people stop us in the space of an hour to comment (nicely of course!) on her dress!!!

Lily gave it her resounding tick  of approval. She wore it to music and kept interrupting the class to ask the teacher if she'd seen her pretty dress and did she like it *oops*

little activist

I took Lily to her first protest on the weekend, a proud moment indeed for any parent.  She enjoyed herself and really played the part. 

The protest was organised by  a young boy; Children against the dredging of the bay.  It started at the Queenscliff Lighthouse, there was a really good turn out and we all marched down Hessey Street.

 This really is a worrying development, and I am honestly at a lost as to why both the state and federal government would give this the go ahead.  This is exactly the sort of thing that Peter Garrett would have spoken loudly against when he was President of the ACF. *sigh*  Deepening the channel and dredging the bay is going to have awful environmental ramifications, already visibility in the water has been affected.

I'm pleased Lily's first protest is one that has relevance to her. :)  Let's hope her actions haven't been in vain.

for more information see: www.bluewedges.org 

and so some knitting...

it's lateish at night... as usual and I find myself in the strange position of sitting here knitting. Lily has just gone to sleep after spending the evening bossing me into knitting her Jemima doll some overalls, she's been attempting to do so herself with a pair of toy needles and a tiny ball of kitchen cotton. Given that she's two and can't actually knit you can probably guess that she didn't really achieve anything... but I am pretty proud of her for her pattern selecting abilities.  

I got out a bag of 8ply leftovers and she selected a charming ball of bright bright orange for Jemima... then proceeded to sort through the rest of the balls and tell me what I was going to knit her with each of the balls.

So given I'm knitting I thought I'd share some recent finished knitting pieces

Specs

Pattern Anthropologie inspired capelet

Yarn  Cleckheaton Merino Spun 1.1 balls (110grams)

Needles 8mm Knit Picks

Mods  none really, except that I choose to wear it stocking stitch out and don't often use a little clasp.

This yarn I bought on sale at Spotlight for 50cents a ball so this little cardy has cost me 55cents in total LOL I finished it in November but have only recently got decent shots. I've worn this heaps over the summer and am really pleased with how well the yarn has worn. It's a great yarn, almost acceptable as a replacement for Merino Supreme ... but of course, now they're discontinuing this as well *rolls eyes*

Specs

Pattern Fools Rush Socks

Yarn  Monster Knits Nundle Mills sock yarn in 'Spring Hippy' colourway

Needles 2.25mm Milward dpns for cuffs and 2.75mm Rosewood dpns for foot

Mods  I started these socks on 2.25mm dpns but when I'd just finished the cuffs I dropped one down a gap in the decking. There was no way Andy was ripping up our extremely well secured decking for a knitting needle so I continued on with a 2.75mm. Luckily my firm to tight knitting meant this was a perfect size and these socks are a perfect fit!!!

I really like this pattern, the lace cuffs are really cute; it's very easy but still has a bit of interest with the panels down the side.  The only thing I didn't really like about the pattern, which was otherwise quite detailed and precise, was the lack of directions as to where to do the gusset decreases.  I did them just the same as a past pair of socks and did them on the lower part of the gusset but notice in the pics that the pattern author has the decreases along the top... oh well!!!

The yarn has knitted up well, a few poolings but I don't mind the effect. It is really soft against the skin.

Lastly, not knitted but knitting related. This is a little dpn needle roll I made to house all my little needles that end up rolling around everywhere in various bags and baskets.

This is ...

my Sunday lunch.

Warm rye sourdough bread just out of the breadmaker with organic purple raspberry jam ~ very simple but yummy!!!!

(yay, i managed to do this week's on time)

This is ... my collection

I'm really not very good at these things LOL I missed one and this is last week's.  I can't even remember whose idea this one was, but you can check out Three Buttons blog for details of what the heck I'm talking about.

So my collection was the topic.  i have lots of stuff I hoard, i mean collect. There's the fabric, the yarn, vintage sewing and knitting patterns. But given that most of the bloggers doing this meme are crafters, they probably all have collections like that. Hmm, my husband would say i collect shoes, which strictly speaking isn't true. I just have a shoe for every possible occasion.... and a few more! 

So then it came to me books, and so I zeroed in on this tiny little collection of beat poetry books. I fell in love with the beat movement after reading Jack Kerouac's On The Road and Allen Ginsberg's Howl at uni.  There was something about the whole hipness of it and rejection of the main stream that I guess appealed to me. A fabulous literary movement.

And just in front of my treasured books you can see a couple of shell from my shell collection.

some previews at last!!!

Finally up to date with customs etc. and able to get back into the swing of things. I'm a bit nervous after not having sold for over a month... seems like a lot longer! Hope people remember who I am.

Having a lovely time on the new machine, it has some beautiful functions and finishes. A great investment.

First up a couple of pairs of Vduds, these are a longer length size 1; good for those who want a capris length or the petite toilet trained toddler.  They'll even fit as full length for a size 00.

I made one of these tshirts with the shark star for a little friend's second birthday, I love it!!! so much that I thought I'd put a few up for sale.  I like that it's really boyish but no skulls, trucks, etc.  I think it's just really cool!!
And a new style that Lily's already been wearing for a few months now (obviously not this one though LOL); a wraparound skirt. 
All coming soon...

champagne breakfasts....yawn!!!

gee, I'm wee bit tired. We had an early one this morning, well early for us on a Saturday morning.  9am for a champagne breakfast to celebrate a friend's little boy's first birthday ~ Happy Birthday Henry!!!  Drinking champagne so early in the morning creates a sort of lazy tired  "I can't be buggered doing anything" fuzz for the rest of the day. Lily and Andy are both sleeping, not that either of them actually drank champagne. I'm supposed to be sewing but lacking in motivation decided to have a chai instead and found myself here.

So have I shared this apron before? I really like it, especially the polka dot apple pocket. I made it for a lovely little girl called Isobel. She also scored this outfit made from some more gorgeous Sis Boom fabric.  I do love this blue!!

Having lost my laptop I still don't know whether I'm coming and going. I'm switching between using the iBook and the iMac, which makes it difficult with pics all over the place. but hey least I still have some computer access.

Slowly getting into some sewing again, finishing off a very very very special custom which I shall share pics with you next week, Megsie's work on this will absolutely blow you away ~ it's an awesome little outfit. Getting a bit of stock up for the store too, I'm going to random stock for February, should be something there in the next few days. 

I've just been trawling through the photos in this computer and I came across this from April 2004.

Topical really, when Fiji's just been hit by another horrendous cyclone that their "early warning" devices didn't alert them to. Nothing new there.  This is a small island in the Yasawa group, Naviti, to the north west of Viti Levu and west from Vanua Levu. It's pretty remote, no flash resorts there and this is the aftermath of a cyclone which we had no warning about either. A bloody scary experience.  Imagine riding out a cyclone in a bure. That dirty water was previously a beautiful long white-sand beach.